The Move: Part 2
by tenjounotora
Summary: Everyone tries to settle down on the island but more changes challenge the family and Alan.


The Move: Part 2

When Alan woke up the next day he was still curled up next to Virgil. He didn't want to move though and tried to force himself back to sleep, but his stomach decided to growl and make sure he knew he was hungry.

He carefully crawled out of the bed and made his way out of his brother's room. He slowly walked down a small flight of stairs and was just about to start down the next flight when he noticed a door had hadn't seen the previous day. It was an elevator and luckily the buttons were low enough he could reach up and push the call button. A moment later there was a small ding and the doors opened.

He stepped inside and looked for the button that would take him down to the kitchen. There were six white buttons in black text high up on the panel and were labeled with the floors of the house: kitchen, lounge, library, game room, bedroom level 1, and bedroom level 2. Alan reached up and hit the button labeled kitchen. As he did so he felt something move under his hand that rested on the metal below the buttons.

It was a small door with a lock, though it hadn't been locked properly from the looks of it. He opened the door and there was another set of buttons, these labeled with just letters and numbers: L1, L2, L3, H1, H2, H3, S1, S2, S3, M1,M2, M3.

Alan tilted his head in wonder at where these buttons would lead and pressed the first one—L1.

"Please insert key." It was a soft kind voice that requested the action and Alan looked and found a slot for a key at the top of this hidden box.

"I don't have key." There was no response to his statement so he closed the box just as the elevator dinged and the doors opened onto the kitchen.

As soon as he stepped out he found that the sun was shining through a cloud of smoke and just a moment later an alarm started to sound.

Alan put his hands over his ears as he inched his way toward the kitchen to see what was going on.

"Mom, why didn't you turn on the vents?"

Alan turned to see his father appear at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the lounge. His father scooped him up and he kept one ear covered with his hand and the other pressed up against his father's shoulder.

Most of the smoke was making its way out of the open side of the room, but enough lingered that Alan nuzzled into his father's shoulder a bit more.

"I couldn't find them. There are so many buttons in this place I don't know what does what."

There was a pause and then the hum as some fans started to pulled the smoke out of the air and the alarm was silenced a moment later. "The buttons are labeled mother if you'd just take a moment to look."

"If you had just put in a plain simple kitchen then this wouldn't have happened."

Alan could hear his father's chuckle through his chest and looked up at him. "I don't think a simple kitchen would have saved the pancakes." It was said in a whisper that Alan was sure was only meant for him.

He smiled and giggled himself.

His father set him down at the table with a pat on the head before going to help his grandmother with breakfast.

Alan laid his head on the table and watched his father and grandmother work in the kitchen. It was only a moment later that his brothers made their way down the stairs rubbing their eyes.

"We heard the fire alarm, is breakfast ready?" Scott was smiling as he picked Gordon up and set him in the chair across from Alan. Gordon laid his head down clearly not quite ready to wake up yet. Virgil sat down next to Alan and John next to Gordon. Scott went into the kitchen to see if he could help.

It wasn't much later that pancakes were set in front of them along with a large crock of maple syrup. Alan grabbed the syrup and started to try and pour it on his stack of dark pancakes but it was taken from him by his father.

"Let me help you, need to make sure there's plenty for all of us." He smiled down as he poured a large portion on Alan's plate before turning to his own.

Alan licked his lips and picked up his fork doing his best to eat like his father was.

"Dad! Dad!" Gordon was still chewing on a bite of his own pancake while attempting to make a tent out of the others on his plate.

"Gordon, you don't have to yell, your father is right there." Their grandma was at the end of the table waving her fork at him.

"But I want to go swimming." He let go of the pancakes on his plate and they fell, pushing some crumbs and syrup off the plate and onto the table.

"You have to eat first."

Alan looked up at his father who was pouring even more syrup onto his own plate watching his grandmother and Gordon with a smile.

"I'm not hungry." Gordon had pushed his plate away sending the pancakes off of it and onto the table.

"Gordon Tracy, now you're just making a mess." Their grandmother was on her feet, but stopped when their father raised his hand.

"Let him be, Mom. I imagine he's just a little grumpy from the trip and the time change."

"So I can go swimming?"

"Not right now. It's alright if you don't want to eat, but you do have to wait for everyone else to finish and help clean up."

"Aw man." Gordon slumped in his chair and crossed his arms.

"If you really want to go swimming as soon as you can, I might suggest that you start by cleaning up your own plate."

Gordon's smile came back with a vengeance and he grabbed his plate, slapped the pancakes that had slid off back onto it and slid out of his seat.

Alan watched this with a small grin, Gordon was always the funniest of his brothers.

Alan finished his own pancakes with little fuss as he watched Gordon climb back onto his chair and slap a soaking wet dishtowel onto the table to wipe up the syrup he'd spilled.

Slowly one by one his other brothers finished and began cleaning up their own plates. Alan finally tugged on his father's shirt. "I'm done."

His father looked down at him and smiled. "Well take your plate to your grandma and have her wipe your mouth. John, if you're done why don't you take Gordon and Alan up and get changed to swim?"

"Yes! Finally!" Gordon was standing in one of the chairs, eager to wipe the table as their brother's stood to take their plates to the kitchen. He dropped the soaked towel where he was and jumped out of the chair before their grandma had finished wiping off Alan's mouth.

When his grandmother had deemed him clean he trotted over to where John was waiting and took his hand.

They took the elevator back up and met Gordon in the hall—he already had his trunks on and was practically dancing in the hall. "Come on guys! Hurry up!"

"Gordon, are those the same trunks that you wore yesterday?"

"Yeah, so?"

"They're probably still wet." John sighed. "Take them off and find your other pair. Dad bought us all extra before we came."

"What's the difference? They're just going to get wet again."

"Gordon, please."

"Fine." Gordon huffed as he pulled his trunks down and flung them at John before cackling as he ran down the hall buck naked.

John just shook his head and led Alan into his room.

Alan grabbed the trunks that were laying on the bathroom floor from the previous night. "They're cold!"

"One reason why you probably don't want to wear them." John smiled and held out his hand. "Toss them here, I'll make sure they get into the dryer. Meanwhile you can start looking for your other pair. Should be in one of those boxes over there."

John left to find his own trunks leaving Alan to search the boxes. Alan had to empty out both boxes and then half of another before he found the new pair his father had bought. He pulled them on and left his room to find John and see if he was ready yet. However, swimming was pushed from his mind when he saw John and Gordon standing with their ear to Virgil's door.

"Whacha doing?"

Gordon put a finger to his mouth and shushed him. "Virgil's crying."

"Why?" Alan lowered his voice as he laid down on his stomach to see what he could hear through the crack at the bottom of the door.

"That's why we're listening, now hush."

"Both of you be quiet, I can't hear."

Alan glanced up at John, but his attention was caught by the voices in the room.

"Virgil? You okay?" It was Scott's voice, his frown evident.

"Yeah, I'm fine." A sniff followed the comment and Alan frowned.

"You knew this was a possibility. We talked about it before we even knew where we'd be moving to."

"I know." Another sniff. "I'm just—I'm scared Dad's just doing this so he can hide himself in his office again."

"That's why Grandma is here. You heard her, she promised she wouldn't let Dad get too involved in his project that he'd forget us. Dad even said so as well."

"He also thought he'd be able to take care of us after Mom died and then he went and locked himself in his office for a long time."

"I know Dad was hard to talk to after Mom died. But he didn't ignore us. We still had food and a place to live. He was just grieving too and was just as lost as we were without her. He regrets those months, you know that."

"But that doesn't mean he won't do it again."

"Virgil." There was a sigh and a second of silence. "I know it's hard to trust Dad right now. You know how I felt then, and how upset I was when he first told us about moving again. We had just gotten things figured out, just settled into a good routine."

"And now he's going to send us away just as we start to get into another one."

"We knew it was a possibility. We had already talked about it, right? But Grandma is here and it's not like Dad's going to go off to an office or anything. He's right here if anyone needs him."

"How can you be sure he won't engulf himself in his work."

"Dad has issues, I won't deny it. But he wouldn't do all of this—" There was a beat of silence and Alan imagined his brother swinging his arms around. "—if he didn't believe in what he was doing. Right now he's asking for our support in this—whatever it is—and I'm going to give it to him."

"Do you think he'll tell us what he's doing?"

"When he's ready he will." There was another moment of silence. "We are together, that's what is important. We're living on an island in the middle of the South Pacific. There is going to be so much to do we won't have time to worry."

"Yeah, I guess."

"It's going to be okay Virg. I promise."

It was quiet again, but Alan's nose started to itch. He rubbed it, but that didn't help and then he sneezed.

"Alan!" Gordon hissed at him.

Alan rubbed his nose with his hand and then wiped his hand on his shorts. "I couldn't help it!"

Scott laughed from the other side of the door. "Come in you three."

John sighed as he pushed the door open and made his way past his two little brothers. He sat down backwards on the desk chair and rested his head on his arms.

Alan scrambled to his feet and climbed up onto the bed and into Virgil's lap facing him. "You said everything was going to be okay."

Virgil frowned a little and pulled Alan into a hug. "It will be. I promise. I just—I just got a little scared for a moment, that's all."

Alan pushed himself away from Virgil so he could look up at him. "You sure?"

"I'm sure."

Alan frowned, his lips puckered.

"Hey, as long as we're all together, nothing can go wrong, right Virg?" Scott reached over and ruffled Alan's hair.

"Yeah, Scotty and Virg will make sure we're okay, won't you!" Gordon was on the bed behind Scott using his shoulders to jump higher on the bed.

"John? Something on your mind?"

Alan followed his eldest brother's gaze. John hadn't said anything and had a slight frown on his face.

"Same as you, I imagine. However, it's hard to make any theories at the moment about what will happen. We'll just have to play along and see."

Alan didn't quite understand what John had meant, but Virgil wasn't crying anymore and they were all telling him it would be okay, so he believed it. They sat there for a second in silence before Gordon brought their attention back to what they had been doing before all of this had happened and ran from the room ready to jump right back into the pool.

—

That summer went by fast for the brothers. They spent as much time as they could exploring their new home, finding all the caves and tunnels that weren't blocked off by their father, going down to the beach, and hiking just about everywhere.

It didn't take long for John to find the perfect stargazing spot and Alan would often follow him up after an active day to enjoy the peace of space above them and listen to his brother explain things to him.

Their father would join them for breakfast and dinner during the week, and play with them on the weekends. Otherwise he would hide himself away in the mountain with some other man—he had introduced him when they had first arrived, but Alan wasn't so sure about him and they rarely saw him so he could never remember his name. Still, it was better than what he had done in the past and he would usually tuck them in—or in his and John's case, come find them and carry Alan back to his room and tuck him in.

August came, though, and things quickly started to changed. Alan had seen his brothers talking to their father various times throughout the summer—Gordon had been mad at something first but then quickly changed his mind. From then on all he talked about was swimming.

Then one day he woke to find all his brothers packing their bags. Confused he went to Scott's room. "Where're we going?"

Scott looked up his eyes widened a bit before a small smile spread across his face. "We're going to school."

"Me too, right?" Alan climbed up onto the bed and looked into the bag his brother was packing.

"No, I"m afraid you're still too little." Scott pushed some more clothes into the bag.

"You'll be home for dinner?" Alan looked up at his brother, the smile had disappeared. "We can eat ice cream and swim again!"

"Sorry, Allie, we won't be home until October."

"When's that?"

"In about two months. It'll be our fall break."

"But that's spring! Remember, We have two springs and two summers this year!"

Scott couldn't help but laugh a little. "That's right, but we're going back to the States. It's going to be fall there soon."

Alan scrunched his brow even more. "That's far."

Scott sighed and sat down next to him, laying an arm around him and pulling him in tight. "Yeah, it is."

Alan shook his head and pulled away from Scott. He reached into his bag and started to pull a few things out. "No! You hafta stay!"

"Alan, stop it." Scott stood and pulled him away from the bag, a pair of his underwear still in his hand.

Alan immediately wrapped his arms and legs around Scott and buried his face in the crook of his neck. "Stay." There was a sniff and he clung a little tighter to Scott.

"I can't. But this is only temporary. We'll be home a bunch of times, just not all the time."

"I don't wanna be alone."

"You'll have Grandma and Dad, and there's so much to do on this island you won't even know what to do with yourself."

Alan held on tighter and sniffed a little.

Scott sighed and held on just that much tighter. "We will be back. I promise. Not just for fall break, but Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break and then next summer. We're not leaving for good, and you can even call whenever you want and talk. okay?"

Alan didn't answer him, but continued to cling to him.

"There you are."

Alan clung even tighter when he heard his grandma's voice. He could feel Scott turn to look at her.

"He doesn't want us to go." A sigh escaped him and Alan tightened his grip. "Hey, squirt, any tighter and I'm not going to be able to breath."

"He's not the only one. Gordon's gone off and is hiding. Your father is looking for him now."

"I thought he was excited to go?"

"He was, but I guess it hit him that he's not going to the same school as the rest of you." Their grandma sighed.

Alan felt Scott sigh again. "Grandma, could you take him? Allie, go to Grandma, please."

Alan just shook his head.

"Come on, kid. How about we go get some ice cream. We've still got your favorite down in the freezer."

Alan shook his head again. He didn't want to let go, he didn't care about ice cream or anything else.

"Alan."

Alan was crying again, the same big tears he cried when they left their home just a few months prior, but these tears hurt more. His brothers were leaving him. Even after they had promised to always be there, they were leaving. He wasn't sure when it had happened, but he was suddenly in his grandma's arms so he latched onto her, Scott's underwear still clutched in his hand.

"I'm going to need these."

Alan didn't open his eyes, his face buried now in his grandma's neck, but he could feel Scott tug on his shorts. Alan tightened his grip on them for a moment and then let go. Scott ruffled his hair a little, then kissed him on the head.

His grandma took him from Scott's room and down to the lounge occasionally patting him on the back and mumbling that things would be okay.

She sat down with him on one of the couches, still patting him on the back. It took him some time to settle down, but he clung to his grandma even when he had stopped crying.

It was there, curled up with his grandma that they heard the plane take off with his brothers.

It was a hard adjustment for the youngest not having his brothers around. The first couple of weeks the young boy was listless, not wanting to do anything.

"Alan, why don't you go with Grandma down to the beach or something?" His father was sitting at his desk doing some work, but seemed distracted by his youngest.

Alan was laying on the floor in the middle of the lounge. He hummed at his father's suggestion as he slowly brought his knees up under him causing his rear to stick up into the air. Then just as slowly he slid his torso across the floor like an inch worm until he was once again flat on the floor.

His father sighed. "This is just going to make the wait worse. You need to keep yourself busy."

"No fun without Scott and 'em." Another slide like an inch worm.

There was a sigh and the rumble of his father's chair rolling across the floor. "That's it. No more sulking. I guess I was wrong in thinking you'd be able to entertain yourself—of course you've never had to before." His father sighed again. "Follow me."

Alan looked over his shoulder at his father who was walking away from him. Curious he jumped to his feet and followed.

His father led him outside and away from the house. It was a familiar area that he and Gordon often went to and played. There was a rock wall that was the border that they weren't allowed past without someone older with them. That was where his father stopped.

"I want you to get up there." His father pointed to the grassy ledge just above his head.

Alan looked up at the ledge and then at his father. He tilted his head and then turned to head for the slope that they usually took to get up there.

His father laughed. "Come back over here."

"But—" Alan started to argue but his father just shook his head.

"I didn't explain myself well enough. I want you to climb the wall."

Alan looked at his father and then back at the rocks before him. Gordon had climbed the wall multiple times, but Alan had been too nervous to try himself.

"Don't worry, I'm right here. I won't let you fall."

Alan scrunched his brows and nodded. He stepped forward and grabbed one of the rocks with his hand.

"Good, now find a place to put your foot." His father nodded as he did so.

He was now clinging to the wall but unsure of what to do next.

"Now you need to go up. Is there a rock you can reach with one of your hands?"

Alan looked around but shook his head. "I'm too short."

"Well, is there a rock higher up you could put your foot on?"

Alan frowned a bit as he looked down, sticking his but out as he did. He lifted his foot up and put it on a higher rock but was unable to keep his hold on the wall and fell backwards with a screech.

But his father was there and caught him. "See, I told you I wouldn't let you fall."

Alan smiled at his father. "I wanna try again."

"Good. This time don't stick your butt out like that. You need to keep your whole body close to the wall, okay."

"Right." Alan took a leap at the wall this time, clinging to it for a moment before lifting his leg to the higher rock. Once there he pulled himself up so he could reach with his hands places that were higher up.

"Don't try and grab things too big right now, your hands are still too small for that. Once they're bigger and stronger then you can try it."

Alan nodded and bit his lip as he concentrated. He fell two more times, but eventually made it up the small wall.

"I did it!" He jumped and cheered above his dad's head.

"Alright, alright. Come on back down."

Alan ran down the slope and back to his father who had walked a few paces down the wall. This part of the wall was almost twice as high, his father couldn't even touch the ledge anymore.

"What do you think, want to try it here?"

"Yes!" Alan cheered and jumped at the wall, missing a hold at first but immediately trying again.

They continued working the rest of the day, his father bringing him back to the house asleep in his arms.

"It's good to see him worn out. I've been worried about him. I knew he'd miss his brothers but—"

"Ah, I know. I won't be able to do this everyday, though."

"What should we do?"

Jeff readjusted his son in his arms holding him tight as he headed for the elevator. "I don't know. I'll think about it tonight. Hopefully I can think of something by tomorrow."

"I hope so too. Otherwise you might have to think about bringing Virgil home."

"Virgil? Why not Gordon? I figured he'd be the first choice."

"I talked to him and his teachers today. Well, it'd be more truthful to say I said hi to him today. He was too excited to get into the pool. He really likes it there and his teachers say he's doing really good. I don't think pulling him out now would be a good idea."

"And what about Virgil?"

"Both him and Scott are worried about Alan. Scott can't leave, you know how dedicated he is, but Virgil said he'd be willing to come home and do home school."

Jeff sighed as he laid Alan down in his bed and covered him up. "I'd rather not do that either."

"We need to figure something out."

"Let me think on it."

Alan rolled over in his bed and clung to his alien plush as the lights were turned off.

His father did start spending more time with Alan, though it wasn't everyday. But he was able to get Alan out of his little funk and spending more time in the pool, reading, or even playing games with his grandma.

In the end, none of his brothers were brought home, but Alan still missed them and would call them often, mostly just before he went to bed. It took a few weeks, but he eventually learned their schedule and knew when their morning break was and took full advantage of that.

"Hey, Allie. Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Alan couldn't help but roll his eyes at Scott's hologram. "I am. I even have my PJs on already."

"That's good. Have you talked to John recently?"

"I talked to him yesterday. He told me more about the stars."

"Why am I not surprised. So what kind of trouble did you get into today?"

Alan's eyes lit up at the question, he'd been waiting all day to tell him. "Dad took me climbing again! I climbed a wall that was twice Dad's size! And I only fell twice!"

Scott laughed. "That sounds fun. Did Dad catch you?"

"Nope, we were using a rope! He had his friend make me a belt that fit!"

"The harness?"

"Yea, that!"

"I see. Sounds like you'll be climbing all over the island in no time."

"Nah, Dad won't let me near the big walls yet."

"I'm glad to hear that. You're not doing any climbing without Dad are you?"

"Nope. I promised. I've been trying to swim faster or run faster when he can't play."

"Sounds like you're keeping yourself busy." Scott chuckled a little.

The connection fell silent for a moment as Alan watched his brother. "When are you coming home?"

"You ask that every time, squirt."

"I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"Then why did you go?"

There was a small chuckle and then a sigh. "I'm surprised it took you this long to ask that."

"Grandma said I shouldn't bother you about it. That it was hard for you to leave."

"It was very hard, but I want to be a pilot like Dad, you know that right?"

"Yeah, you want to fly those fast planes!" Alan made a vroom as he waved his hand through the air like it was a plane.

"Yeah, just like that." Scott smiled big for a moment, but it softened a little as he continued. "But I've got to be sure I take the right classes and learn the right stuff to do that. There is this school I want to go to when I'm older and it's really hard to get into so I have to start studying really hard now if I want to go."

"But you're already smart. I bet you could get in now!"

"I'm glad you think that, but I've still got a lot to learn."

"Oh." Alan laid his head down on his pillow. "What about Virgil?"

"You'll have to ask him about that. He's right here, do you want to talk to him?"

Alan nodded his head. Scott disappeared for a moment and Alan worried that the connection had been closed but then Virgil's head appeared and Alan couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, Allie. I hear you're asking some hard questions today."

Alan shrugged a little. "I just wanna know why you left."

Virgil's smile faded away a little as he sighed. He looked to his left and right a moment before leaning in a little. "Someone had to come and make sure Scott was okay, you know. I couldn't just let him go off on his own, do you know how miserable he would have been without one of us?"

Alan smiled a little at that, but it didn't last long. "I miss you guys though."

"I know. I miss you all too."

"You're not having too much fun without us are you?"

Virgil let out a much louder chuckle at that. "Oh, I'm sure you're having way more fun with Dad than we are. We have class every day and have to study when we're done too."

"We study every day too!" Alan leaned up on his elbow a bit. "Grandma makes me practice reading and counting. Grandma says she's gonna make me start doing some math next week." Alan scrunched his nose up a little.

"Aw, I think you'll like math. You'll need it if you want to fly like the rest of us."

"Hmm, I guess I can give it a try." Alan laid back down again, blinking a little, his eyelids feeling a bit heavy.

"I think it's time you got to bed."

"I'm not tired." Alan yawned and rubbed at his eyes.

"How about if I sing you a song?"

Alan nodded and yawned again. It was the song Virgil usually sang for him, and he thought that maybe their mother had sang it as well, but he was afraid to ask them about it cause it always made them sad.

It didn't take long for Alan to doze off and he just barely heard his brothers say night before he was asleep.


End file.
